Fallen From Eden
by AToastToTheKnowing
Summary: We follow a cabin-sick engineering officer on the night shift of the USS Rebecca, a ship partially through a journey in the newest part of Federation space. When her superior officer on the bridge goes unexpectedly missing and she befriends a Halcyon security officer, she finds herself in the middle of a delicate political situation unfolding around her.
1. Night Shift

p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.119999885559082px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; caret-color: #2a2a2a; color: #2a2a2a;""Good morning, Eden."br /"Good morning."br /"Would you like to watch the sun rise?"br /"Yes, please."br /Eden blamed her bed for her insomnia. The regulation mattresses were notoriously stiff, although she was thankful at least for the increased size. The twin bed she'd had as an ensign had been barely enough to sleep on, although once she'd fallen asleep, not even falling off in the night woke her up. Turbulence wasn't as bad since the repair stop at Yorktown, and she'd only woken up on the floor once or twice in the past few weeks. This particular night had been smooth and silent, and she hadn't moved in over six /She was greeted finally at 19:00 hours when a blink and a steady voice marked the beginning of her /A few moments passed and the lights came steadily on to imitate a day starting. Eden stared at the ceiling and watched the glass slowly untint, the curve of the red moon they were passing faintly visible in the bottom half of the /"Can I see the rest?" she asked. br /"I'm sorry, this dwarf is too bright to view right now."br /"Okay."br /"It is 19:02 hours, you should get up now if you want to have time to shower."br /She slid to the end of the bed and swung her legs down, getting up and walking to the bathroom. She pulled her undershirt over her head and dropped it in the refresher, listening to it whir softly as she stepped into the stall. br /"Did you sleep well, Eden?"br /She set the shower to a slightly low frequency and sighed, rubbing the back of her head where a stiff pain had been bothering her. br /"No," she said, stretching her fingers on the wall of the /"That's unfortunate. Maybe you should go back to medical and ask Dr. Mara for more tablets."br /"I don't like those. They give me weird dreams."br /"A weird dream is better than no sleep, don't you think?"br /She closed her eyes and pressed the ball of her hand against her browbone. br /"I'd really like to be alone now, Clipe."br /She heard a small ding and then there was just the sound of her sonic shower and the feeling of her feet on the even ground. She took a shower every day, but she was never unclean. She wished she had something real to get off; some dirt under her nails or sweat under her arms. Something to scrub. br /The shower stopped after another minute and she stepped out, stretching her arms and wishing she had real coffee. Maybe Sana would give her some if she asked. /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.119999885559082px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; caret-color: #2a2a2a; color: #2a2a2a;"The door to her closet liked to open and close more quickly than it was supposed to and it still startled her, but its contents held a moment of happiness. She ran her hand over the robe Taiseh had given her, hanging to the left of her uniforms. It was easily the best gift she'd ever received; Orion silk was hard to come by off-planet. br /She pulled her uniform on and brushed her hair, twisting it into the coils she always had at the base of her neck. She'd been wearing it the same way for so long that even when it was loose, it sat in three long /Her boots were heavy and she idly wondered, as she did every day, if the gravity was set too high in her room. She ached for a real planet, with real gravity. br /She left her room two minutes later than she usually did and speed-walked to the turbolift, afraid to miss the start of her shift. The door slid open and a subdued smile greeted her. br /"Hey," Taiseh said, stepping to the side. She tucked a strand of curly hair behind her ear and played with the ring on her green index /"Hey. Had fun on swing shift?" Eden asked. br /"You know it. You look tired."br /"Jesus," Eden said, chuckling. "Thanks."br /"Sorry. You eat yet?"br /"Yes," she lied. She didn't want her stomach bothering her during a /"Want me to stop by after your shift is over?" Taiseh asked, taking her hand and squeezing it. "Only if we play Orion Checkers again."br /"Sure," Taiseh said, her mouth creeping into a smile. "See you in eight hours," she said, kissing Eden lightly on the /The lift opened and Taiseh waved at Eden as she left the lift and walked onto the bridge. She stepped down from the main platform and sunk into her seat, punching in her console's activation code. She set up her station and less than a minute after she signed in, the lift opened again and a call prompted her rise from her seat. br /"Commanding Officer on the bridge."br /They stood for a few seconds before resuming their positions and Eden continued her systems survey, peering at the empty console beside hers. Jay was late. br /"Good evening, night crew," Amelior said after a deep /The bridge gave a subdued response and she nodded, turning to look behind her at the communications wall. br /"Alto, any new transmissions?"br /"No, ma'am," Sana said, the willowy woman drumming her fingers on her /"Jones, how's our course looking?"br /"Steady, Commander," the helmsman on the far side of the bridge said, craning his neck over the back of his /"Great. Resolve that issue in engineering, Cohen?"br /Silence hung for a few seconds and the bridge turned to look at Eden's corner of the bridge. br /"Cohen?"br /"He's not here, Commander," Eden said after a moment, Amelior swiveling her seat to face her. br /"It's 20:15 hours. Where is he?"br /"I'll comm his room," Sana said from across the room. She tapped her fingers across a control board and they waited, but nothing came. br /"He's not copying."br /Amelior rubbed her forehead, a tired look in her eyes. br /"Trace his comm. See if he's down in starboard engineering. We can't move until we know both engines are functioning."br /Sana nodded and moved her hand up to the screen on the wall, swiping through a page of readings with a furrowed /"What is it?" Amelior asked, her voice tired with /"It's not…"br /"Can you read him?"br /She nodded but her hand was frozen in the air, unsure of what gesture to /"Yes, but I think the transmitter is malfunctioning, this can't be accurate."br /"What do you mean? Where is he?"br /She spluttered for a moment, failing to give a complete answer. br /"Spit it out, Alto."br /"It says he's outside engineering."br /"Well he must be on his way back then, just call him."br /"No, ma'am, it says he's outside engineering. Like, outside."br /"As in what? Outside the engine room?"br /She turned in her chair to face the captain, moving aside to show the console, a diagram with a small blinking light appearing on the /"Outside the ship, ma'am."br /A few moments passed in silence and Eden stared at the empty desk next to her, listening to the steady beeps and whirs of the screens around her. br /"Seif."br /Eden turned sharply around to face the captain. br /"I'm granting you access to the primary systems console. Count for missing transporters or escape pods. Check for any airlock or hull failures and run a scan for communications malfunctions. Alto, comm engineering."br /"Yes ma'am," she said, sliding awkwardly to sit in Jay's lieutenant's chair. The desktop lit up and she quickly signed in, pulling up the readings on escape pods. The list appeared one by one and she watched anxiously as they neared an end. The list reached the 380s and stopped suddenly, the number 387 blinking violently in red. br /"Evacuation pod 387 is missing from dock, ma'am," she said. br /"Trace its location. Alto, where's engineering?"br /"Trying to reach them, ma'am," Sana /Eden frowned at her console. br /"It's still here, ma'am. I think it's stuck in dock. It's showing extensive damage… something's happened."br /"Engineering is not responding," Sana interrupted, shaking her head. "No one's copying."br /"Seif, do a system check on engineering."br /"They're showing up blank. Their comm system is down."br /"Okay, Speld, go check it out," Amelior said, one of the security officers nodding and starting toward the turbolift. br /"Seif, go with her. Confirm engineering systems and find Lt. Cohen."br /"Yes ma'am," Eden said, hurrying from her seat to join the guard by the lift, taking her handheld comm with /The door to the lift closed and the guard punched in the setting for engineering, Eden taking a breath. She felt a shiver on her spine and resisted the urge to hold onto the wall as she felt their gravitational center shift. She could see space arching over them as they sped across the outer edge of the Rebecca, the tint shielding them from the blinding light of the yellow dwarf they were directly beneath. br /"Do you think he's alive?"br /Eden turned to look at the security officer next to her. She was around six foot two and the bar of blue markings beneath her eyes told Eden she was from either Sacci or /"I don't know," she said, and it was true. "I think so. The damage seemed bad, but if the pod didn't leave dock, life support is probably still operating. I don't think the airlock was compromised."br /The guard nodded and they rode in silence for the remaining minutes until the lift came to a halt and the door opened to an empty hallway. br /"This way," Eden said, leading them down to a large access door. "Give me your code, I'll comm you if we get separated."br /The door slid heavily open and they were greeted by the familiar chaos Eden knew from her time as an ensign. The bridge had always seemed too quiet compared to the constant noise of systems and /"Come on," she said, leading the guard down a set of metal stairs. "We have to find the east-bound escape pods."br /They jogged down another set of stairs and broke into a narrow hallway lined with tall glass doors, grey strapped seats visible behind them. br /"What's the number?" the guard asked. br /"387."br /They walked briskly down the thin hall, counting the numbers above each pod as they went. The security guard counted out loud and Eden resisted the urge to ask her not to. br /"367, 368…"br /She was interrupted by a nearby scream and they both halted abruptly, briefly looking at one another before breaking into a run. It was difficult to move quickly down the skinny hallway and Eden silently noted that it was a rather stupid design; people in a crisis would need quick access to the escape pods and a thin hallway made it very hard. br /The security officer's steps were heavy and loud on the metal floor and she ran much faster than Eden, the human woman struggling to keep up. As they moved closer, Eden could hear a loud sobbing somewhere ahead. The tall alien woman pulled in front and Eden heard her footsteps slow as she turned a curve, then stop altogether, a slow word punctuating her halt. br /"Shit…"br /She turned the corner and came to a stop, catching her breath with a hand on the wall. She looked up to see the security guard standing with a hand on her neck, staring at the wall in front of her. A small Orion woman dressed in the red of engineering was cowered against the rail opposite the pods, shaking her head. br /"He said he was just inspecting," she said, tears already rolling thickly down her face and her voice heavy with fright. "But he didn't show back up…"br /Eden walked a few steps to join them and choked on her breath, covering her mouth with one hand. br /"We have to wake the captain up," the guard said, rubbing her /Eden couldn't respond, her eyes still locked on the sight of her superior officer strapped into the seat of his escape pod, his face frozen asleep right up to where the top of his head had been blown away, along with the top two feet of the pod itself. His skin was so blue he could have been Andorian or Orion and Eden couldn't help but picture Taiseh there /She heard the guard speaking into her comm, although she wasn't listening to the words. br /"Congrats," she said to Eden, nudging her. "Lieutenant."/p 


	2. Investigative Chaos

Mellin rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes, hunched slightly over in the captain's chair.  
"Tell me, slowly, exactly what happened."  
"Well, we-"  
"I meant her," he said, cutting Lt. Speld abruptly off and nodding at Eden.  
Speld nodded and looked down and Eden could see that she was chewing the inside of her cheek to keep from speaking.  
"We, uh, went down to engineering," Eden said. "and the comms were malfunctioning, but the engine systems seemed fine. So we tried to find the escape pod."  
"And was it there?" the captain asked.  
She nodded.  
"Yes, sir. It was stuck in dock, like we thought, but the damage was worse that my scan showed. The top third of the pod had been completely destroyed."  
"And the systems lieutenant?"  
"He's dead, sir."  
The captain sighed and rubbed his eye with the ball of his hand.  
"It's too early for this. Okay, what's medical saying?"  
A vulcan woman in the blue uniform of the science division stepped forward from where she was waiting and joined the circle.  
"Initial autopsy shows that Lieutenant Cohen died from exposure to extreme temperature rather than trauma to the head, so it is our estimate that the pod sustained its primary damage after its airlock failed."  
"So you're saying the pod, what, opened somehow, before it was hit?"  
"We cannot be sure without inspecting the pod more closely," the vulcan woman said.  
"When can you do that?"  
"I am a medical officer; I am not trained in the design of escape pods."  
He turned to look at Eden, raising an eyebrow.  
"What about you? You're systems and engineering, right?"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Great," he said. "head back down to the pod. Look it over, do what you can without removing it. Let me know what you find. Take the doctor with you."  
She nodded and he waved a hand at the table.  
"Dismissed."  
They all stood and Eden started toward the turbolift, joined by the vulcan woman from across the room. She'd always favored engineering over the monotony of the bridge, but going as a command officer took a little of the pleasure out of it.  
"I'm Eden," she said to the doctor as the door to the turbolift closed. "Or, Lieutenant Seif." She knew Vulcans preferred to use titles rather than first names.  
"I am Dr. T'Lel."  
"Nice to meet you."  
"It is pleasant to meet you as well."  
The ride over was silent and Eden closed her eyes for a minute, resting her hand on the bar on the side of the wall to keep her balance. She'd known Vulcans before; she enjoyed their company. Most of them shared her exhaustion for pointless conversation. They preferred to do, rather than to say. She'd never met a Vulcan that didn't despise small talk.  
They left the lift and Eden led the doctor silently down the steps to the escape hall, taking a few minutes to follow the path to pod 387. The pod itself was still in place, although the contents had been emptied. There was no body, but Eden kept her eyes down anyway. She crouched by the door and opened the control hatch at the base of the pod, holding up her scanner. She listened to the steady beeping and waited for a reading to come in, watching the grid slowly appear on the small screen. The results blinked in the corner of the scanner and she frowned, reloading it.  
"It says the back hatch was opened."  
"Why would it have opened?" the vulcan doctor asked. "Could Lieutenant Cohen have activated it?"  
"It's designed never to open while still in dock on the ship. The only way would be for someone to open it manually from outside."  
"Could it be a reading mistake? Your conclusion seems unlikely."  
"Yea, I'll run it again."  
She reset her scanner and waited, an abrupt bang startling her from her left.  
They stared down the hall for a few seconds before the same noise made Eden stand up.  
"Something is approaching us," Dr. T'Lel said, Eden taking a half-step back.  
Eden concentrated and listened, turning her head slightly.  
"I know what that is," she said, walking quickly towards it.  
"I do not think it is wise…" Dr. T'Lel said quietly, following her after a moment of hesitation.  
They turned the curve and saw what Eden had expected: the convection vents lining the rail were opening, stiff streams of air shooting up a few yards away.  
"What is that?" Dr. T'Lel asked.  
"The vents are opening," she said, shaking her head. "It only happens when there's an engine overload, but this engine shouldn't be operating at all. Come on, we have to get to the operating room."  
They walked quickly, then ran down the hallway, past the columns of steam that made Eden sweat if she strayed too close to them. She turned a corner and they arrived at one of the control rooms, the door refusing to open.  
Eden craned her neck and looked through the small window, blinking in disbelief. A short woman was standing at the central panel, opening the control hatches one by one.  
"What do you see?" T'Lel asked, clearly reluctant to squeeze her face into the window beside Eden.  
"It's someone from engineering."  
"She must be trying to deactivate the engine."  
Eden shook her head. The wall panels above her were all blank, but they weren't engine controls.  
"She's turning off the stabilizers."  
"What will that do?"  
"Bad things. It'll overload. We have to stop her."  
"The door will not open," T'Lel said, the wall controls not responding. "It has been deadlocked."  
The woman turned suddenly and met eyes with Eden, straightening up from the panel.  
"What are you doing?" Eden tried to shout through the door at her.  
The woman pulled a phaser from her hip and pointed it toward the door, Eden shrieking as she tried to shoot the window.  
"Go, go!" she yelled, pushing the doctor away from the door and scrambling down the hallway. They passed the destroyed pod and Eden faintly heard the sound of footsteps behind them, running faster. They tried to go back the way they'd come, but the vents in front of them had opened too quickly and the hallway was blocked by a wall of thick steam, the heat palpable from several feet away. The noise increased as the air shot higher from the grids around them and Eden saw the doctor covering her ears with the balls of her hands.  
"What can we do?" she asked loudly, struggling to be heard over the noise.  
Eden took out her comm and shook her head.  
"Communication's been cut off!" she shouted over the vents. "I can only see private signals!"  
She scrolled and landed on the only security code she had, selecting it.  
"Who is this?"  
"It's Seif!" she said loudly into her comm.  
"What?"  
"Speld! It's Lieutenant Seif!" she yelled, the signal faint. "We're stuck in engineering!"  
"Enginee-"  
The call ended abruptly and Eden cursed, looking up to see the doctor standing against the pods, trying to save her overly sensitive alien ears from the intense noise.  
She opened her scanner and thrust her arm over the vents, holding it there as long as she could before the heat became too much and she pulled it back, shaking her head at the results.  
"The engine is overheating!" she shouted behind her, her voice sore. "We have to move!"  
"There is no safe passage!"  
"We don't have a choice!"  
Eden waved at her and braced herself, running through the steam and climbing quickly over the descended vent. She clenched her teeth as it burned her hands but continued to run, the Vulcan woman close behind her. They reached the top of the metal stairs but the passageway had closed, bright alarm lights flashing at the top of its threshold.  
"Shit," she said to herself. "Go!"  
She ushered the doctor back down the steps, sheltering in the small enclave of pods at the foot of the steps.  
"What can we do?" Dr. T'Lel asked loudly, her voice barely discernable through the noise.  
Eden looked around, pulling at her hair in panic. To their left was a rail over the depths of the starboard engine, to the right, a closed escape ship. There was nowhere to go.  
"I don't know!"  
A loud creak joined the cacophony of other noises and Eden watched the rail bend forward toward them, Eden stepping back toward the small jet. The pressure regulator was failing. She looked around again and an idea struck her.  
"Get in the pod!"  
"We cannot-"  
"Get in it!" she yelled louder, pointing aggressively at the wall. "The pressurizers are failing; we'll be crushed if we don't move!"  
The Vulcan woman ran into it and sat in one of the seats and Eden's hands flew over the controls, setting up support as quickly as she could.  
"Lieutenant, turn!"  
Eden looked behind her to see the short woman from the control room, a phaser pointed at her. She shot again and Eden screamed and ducked, the blast hitting the panel a few feet above her head. The Vulcan woman yanked her behind the console and heard the woman shoot around her, staring at the scorched damage on the wall of a phaser set to kill.  
She heard indiscernible yells from across the room and the shots resumed, but Eden couldn't see where they were being directed. She heard a high-pitched shriek and felt a dull thump on the floor somewhere. Someone yelled again, but Eden couldn't hear who it was. Heavy footsteps approached them and Eden held her breath, a face appearing on their side of the console. Eden felt a smile spread on her face as the security guard pulled her to her feet, the ground shaking beneath them.  
Eden tried to say something but the noise was too loud and she couldn't hear herself, struggling to remain upright as the movement increased. The guard motioned something and pushed Eden into the nearest seat, seeing the Vulcan doctor sit quickly beside her. The straps shot over her chest and she felt them lock into place, looking up to see the short woman unconscious in the middle of the floor, her phaser nowhere to be seen. The security officer was at the control station, slamming her hand down to close the door. She straightened up and turned to look at Eden. Eden tried to yell at her but her words were lost in the chaos and she saw something shift outside the pod, the guard flipping another switch and running to sit in one of the seats.  
There was a deafening noise and something seemed to wrench Eden forward against the straps in her seat, light exploding outside her window view. Her eyes closed and she saw the orange skin of her eyelids, the roar outside turning to a high-pitched whistle. The light gave suddenly out and she opened her eyes to see the ship shrinking in front of her. She watched it for a few moments before there was another flash and she saw the left jet of the ship rip open, light taking over the window again. She tried to close her eyes, but they wouldn't listen to her.  
Something jerked her violently back and she felt something hit the back of her neck and then darkness blinded her.


End file.
